collectivity
Pasts, presents and futures of critical publishing
Dear readers,
Thank you for being a part of ephemera: theory & politics in organization. You are what makes ephemera a unique journal: a meeting point of scholarly disciplines, a home for emerging ideas that push forward and transform these disciplines, and a community in which past, present and future political questions can be addressed and acted upon. In a time characterized by distraction and productivity, choosing to spend your time reading this journal is the most precious gift we could ever hope to receive.
Re-thinking the datafied society through the anonymity kaleidoscope
Anonymity is a crucial issue in debates concerning technology, politics, and data justice. A new anthology offers fundamental insights into what anonymity is and why it matters. The book of anonymity focuses on the possibilities connected to and created by anonymity, how it is produced, its outcomes, and its potentials. The book looks at anonymity as a ‘mode of being and knowing’ [23], moving beyond a purely technical definition.
Shiny new archives? On the politics, history, and ethics of archives under the condition of big data
With some vigour, American artist and information studies scholar Johanna Drucker clarifies: ‘the notion of data as “given” and thus self-evident is patently false – all data are constructed’ [Visualization, 563]. Since data are not just given, the questions then are who produces data, who decides what data are stored, maintained, and deleted, who profits and who is discriminated in and through data sets? The glossary Uncertain archives: Critical keywords for big data (2021) sets out to tackle these questions.
Pasts, presents and futures of critical publishing
This issue celebrates 20 years of ephemera. We, the editorial collective, feel this anniversary provides the opportunity to debate the pasts, presents and futures of critical publishing. Today, most academic journals are owned by commercial publishing houses and organized according to journal rankings and impact factors. Yet ephemera remains stubbornly independent of these global capitalist forces. In this anniversary issue, we want to raise questions about independence – independent thinking, independent publication, independent organizing.
Against a personalisation of the self
Introduction
He handed Mae a piece of paper, on which he had written, in crude capitals, a list of assertions under the headline The rights of humans in a digital age. Mae scanned it, catching passages: We all must have the right to anonymity. Not every human activity can be measured. The ceaseless pursuit of data to quantify the value of any endeavour is catastrophic to true understanding.
